Author: Tim Ehrhardt

I'm just a common ordinary pastor, chaplain, father, grandfather, and dog owner who loves the smell of a genuine leather Bible and the aroma of its message. I'm on a quest to track down the best Bibles, how to best read and use them, and to discover the encouragement inside.

Deuteronomy 12:28-32

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            The old phrase “curiosity kills the cat” certainly applies to the ancient Israelites concerning the pagan nations that surrounded them.  The book of Deuteronomy is a re-statement of the law for a new generation of God’s people poised to enter the Promised Land.  The previous generation had experienced a failure of faith and perished over the course of a forty year sojourn in the desert.  But now their children were ready to enter the land and receive the promises of God.
             The Lord knew that the people would be curious, in all the bad sense of that word.  These verses are a clear warning to keep away from the practices of the nations that God was about to dispossess from the land.  Sitting here now thousands of years removed from the Old Testament, we know the end of the story.  The Israelites, although having a remnant of people faithful and devoted to God’s law, as a whole allowed their curiosity to get the best of them and did not follow the Lord.
             Before becoming a Christian thirty-five years ago I did not live according to God’s commands.  Because of that reality in my life, I have always found it “curious” that there are believers who wonder if they are missing out on something, having always been in the church.  They may even adopt some cultural practices, like offering their children on the altar of wealth or sports, serving the idols of security or getting ahead.  We must all have the wisdom to identify the healthy practices of our culture consistent with God’s Word, and the unhealthy curiosity to pursue endeavors uncritically without making sound godly decisions.  
             Ever-present God, you have given me your Word to know and live by.  Strengthen my knowledge of you and my faith so that I will serve you faithfully today and always through Jesus Christ my Lord.  Amen.

Psalm 111

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            The combination of a microwave society and the constant need to be entertained has resulted in a profound lack of wisdom in our culture.  Whether it is politics or theology, at work or at home, everywhere we gravitate toward finding quick solutions given to us in engaging ways.  But biblical wisdom operates a different way.  It is must grow slowly and mature over an extended period of time.  It all begins with a basic reverence of God.  “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding.  To him belongs eternal praise.”
 
            Taking the time and the focus to marinade our lives in the praise and adoration of God, even when we do not feel like it, is necessary to living wisely.  Foolishness is in direct proportion to a lack of reverence and awe of God.  Conversely, the attention and recognition of God in glorifying him begins a slow process of lifetime learning that inevitably leads to the humility of wisdom.  Wisdom in the Bible is the ability to live well and flourish as a person by applying God’s revelation to the real concrete situations of life.  That cannot be done apart from praise to the LORD.
 
            In what ways can you praise God today?  What situations are you facing that need biblical wisdom?  Are you following the revealed commands of God in Scripture?  Will you be patient to allow God to help you with your troubles?  Where is Jesus influencing your daily decisions? 
            All wise God, I praise your holy name.  Teach me your ways so that I will know how to live wisely in all kinds of situations to the glory of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

The Enlightenment Hangover

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            The Enlightenment project, begun centuries ago and coming to full flower in the 17thwith the primacy of reason and the scientific method, still exerts a potent hangover effect even in these post-Enlightenment or postmodern times.  Without going into a complete history lesson (which I will tackle another time) we can say that the church bought into much of this project in the 19th century.  We are still experiencing its effects today.  Just as the factory system with its focus on efficiency and specialization was the fruit of applying certainty and objective principles to manufacturing, so the church has this continuing and nasty tendency to operate as though people ought to move through the teaching and ministry of the church and come out the other end as products ready for shipping to heaven.  Whenever we focus on certainty in process, confidence in a particular project, and the expectation of people’s production as the highest of goals in the church then we are allowing Enlightenment philosophy and not biblical Christianity to shape our lives.
 
The essence of biblical Christianity revolves completely around the person and work of Jesus Christ.  The most profound theological and practical statement I could make is that God the Father loves us through God the Son by means of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  The work of Jesus has made deliverance from sin real, the restoration of the world possible, and it is the Spirit’s work to apply Christ’s redemption to us.
 
            Ideally, therefore, church ministry teaches us this good news of Jesus, and everything is done in order to worship and exalt the Son and bless the world.  But a warning must be given here because Christianity may be perverted into a form of Enlightenment-type idolatry through substituting the Church, the Bible, Christian service, spiritual experiences, or a list of do’s and don’ts for the person of Jesus Christ.
 
            The Church is an idol when we miss the truth that Jesus is the Head of Church (Ephesians 1:22).  The Bible is an idol when we neglect the truth that Jesus is the Living Word (John 1:14).  Our Christian ministry and service is an idol when do not acknowledge the truth that Jesus is Lord of all, including the harvest (Matthew 9:38).  Pursuing a spiritual experience or certain emotions are idols when we pass over the truth that Jesus is our sanctification, the one who sets us apart as holy (1 Corinthians 1:30).  Living ethically and morally is an idol when we avoid the truth that Jesus is Messiah who has delivered us from the power of sin (Luke 6:46).
 
            All of these ways put the onus on process and production, thus eroding the true foundation of Christianity, which is the person and work of Jesus.  The source, content, authority, and provision in Christianity are all found in the Holy Trinity, made available to us through the work of Christ and revealed to us in the Word of God.
 
            So, any church ministry that is worth its salt is continually seeking, submitting, and obeying the Word of God and responding to God with faith, hope, and love.  It is to be a dynamic relationship and not a spiritual factory making expected people products.  Sometimes we might get so discouraged over the lack of results, church conflict, apathetic people, or the paucity of spiritual growth within Christians that we end up unwittingly substituting some idol in the place of Jesus.  Adding more bells and whistles to existing programs or starting new ministries because we think the objective factory system needs tinkering are not good options for church work.  Instead, try reading through the Gospels again to get a fresh perspective on Jesus – who he is and what he did.  Let the re-invigoration of the church, Christian organizations, and the Christian life be centered in Christ, and not in a curriculum or strategic plan, as if the assembly line has broken down.
 

 

            We must return to Christianity and church ministry as the incredible relational and spiritual interaction between God and his people through worship, fellowship, and personable outreach.  This is not a cerebral emphasis on reason in order to make the church factory run more efficiently, but a plea for fostering relationship with Jesus the Son, exaltation of God the Father, and being filled with the Holy Spirit.  We serve and glorify a God who transcends Enlightenment reason and is not limited to the scientific method.  Let us, therefore, live like it.

Mark 3:13-19

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            Jesus calling the original twelve disciples may, at first glance, seem like a bore.  Yet, like everything our Lord did, Jesus acted with grace and sensitivity to the Father.  This list of names of the people Jesus would spend the next three years with is nothing less than a motley crew of disparate individuals who have nothing in common other than being Galilean Jews.  For example, putting Simon Peter and Simon the Zealot together on the same team would be akin to having Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and CNN’s Bill Maher paired-up for a three year task force on political action; having James and Judas Iscariot linked in a small group is not much different than thrusting Sarah Palin and Nancy Pelosi in the same group.
             If we were to judge Jesus on his team building skills based upon contemporary conventional wisdom, this would be a disaster.  The issue would not only be that it is unlikely that they could ever work together, but also that it would create a potentially explosive situation where they might literally ring each others’ necks.  Yet, it was this crazy lot of men that ended up turning the world upside-down after Christ’s resurrection and ascension.
             Jesus knew what he was doing.  The glue that held them together was the person of Jesus himself.  And today’s church must be knit together not on the basis of shared politics, the same ideas of how things should go, or even around who the pastor is.  No, the church is and ought to be centered completely in the person and work of Jesus.  When individuals and churches explode or implode it is because Jesus has ceased to be both the subject and object of worship and ministry.  It is to Christ we must continually look to in order to work together and experience genuine life change as Christians.
             Father, Son, and Spirit, Blessed Holy Trinity, the God whom I serve, may my life totally revolve around you, especially the person and work of Jesus.  Help me to put aside my personal agenda so that I might clearly understand your will for me.  Amen.